Thursday, September 15, 2011

Tit for tat over Tymoshenko?

The first reading of the draft report of the European Parliament’s recommendations to the Council, the Commission and the EEAS on the negotiations of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement has been postponed from the 26 - 29th September pleniary session, provisionally until 16th November.

The Tymoshenko gas trial, which had been in its final run-in last week, was sensationally adjourned on Monday, until 27th September. A verdict was imminent and therefore would probably have been announced on Friday 30th September, or more likely, on Monday 3rd October, i.e. just after the European parliament session.

Now after this postponement in the European parliament, a further adjournment in the Tymoshenko trial could be likely, as I suggested in my previous blog.

'Lyevyi Bereg' editor-in-chief Sonia Koshkina reckons it could almost be the New Year before a sentence is passed in the Tymoshenko trial, and claims the former PM can be regarded as a hostage or a bargaining chip, serving to focus both Brussels' and Moscow's attention on to the looming gas war; to be released once a new gas price for Ukraine is settled.

President of European People`s Party Dr. Wilfried Martens met President Victor Yanukovych today. He had been denied access to the incarcerated Tymoshenko earlier in the day.

The big-selling pro-PoR 'Segodnya' concludes an article describing his visit thus: "..the European politician yet again made clear that a decision on the Association Agreement with the EU depends on the court's decision on Tymoshenko.

'Segodnya', quoting a recent 'Ukrainska Pravda' piece, says: "It's difficult to land up behind bars on the "Tymoshenko [criminal] article", media reports -The defendants usually get off with a fine or a 'suspended' sentence....They are preparing their readers for a soft landing for Lady Yu, as they sometimes call her..

Thanks for your comment Elmer. Behind all of this though we should keep sight of the wider picture. Closer ties between the EU and Ukraine will benefit the latter's citizens, and also reduce Russia's influence in the Eurasian region and 'keep them in their box'.

IMO the Ukrainian authorities know this too. Now there are signs of backtracking by them on the issue of political repression because they never expected such intense pressure from western governments on this subject. Yanuk and his friends' behaviour, has been predictable and true to type to anyone familiar with their background in Donbas, now they are learning that you cannot run Ukraine in the same manner as Donbas where they achieved a measure of success.

Yanukovych is already blaming others, including Yushchenko for the gas problems..

Credible reports of pressure not only on small and medium businesses, but also larger enterprises by appointees of the Donetsk clan are ever-increasing..sooner or later the bubble will burst..the football t-shirt business is merely a symptom of this..

1) the sovok mafiosi have not shown the slightest interest in letting go of their pig trough government

2) they want the agreement - but they think they can fool the EU, and get it by doing absolutely nothing to bring Ukraine up to European standards of democracy

3) the sovok mafiosi have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, and sovok-propagandizing, to implement the slightest European reforms

4) the "success" they had in Donbass is FOR THEMSELVES, that is, for the sovok mafia elite -

the coal miners keep dying in exploding coal mines

there's a nice soccer stadium in Donetsk for Akhetov, who pays Brazilian players millions of dollars to run after a ball

But there is poverty in Donbass for the rest of the people.

5) On the Savik Shuster show from Sept 9, 2011, Tyahnybok detailed exactly what the Donetsk sovok mafia is doing as far as "pressure" on small and medium businesses

This includes forcing owners to sell their business to Donetsk mafia at a fraction of the cost/value

Also, Donetsk sovok mafia makes governmental appointments in Lviv - and all over the rest of the country - so that "their" people are in place in gov't everywhere.

Vadim Karasyov, in answer to the question, "is Ukraine headed for democracy or Asian totalitarianism," answered that "Ukraine is already a totalitarian state - a sovok (радянський) state."

And he is exactly right. Vitaly Portnikov agrees, and so does Tyahnybok. So do others in the opposition. You should have seen the poor little disappointed faces of Akimova and Oliynyk and Yefremov, who are ever so proud of their hideous little piece of shit "government."

And they are right.

Ukraine relies on a brutal personal power/ personal patronage system still stemming from sovok times.

Elections of officials, rather than appointments, would wipe that out.

Which is why they have as few elected positions as possible.

It would eliminate a huge source of power for the "political elite" sovok mafia.

Ukraine is a country with an enormously sick, dysfunctional system of government, infested with enormously psychotic, dysfunctional people.